Cellulose food casings are well known in the art and are widely used in the stuffing of meat and processed meat products such as sausages and the like. One type of such casing is known as fibrous casing. Fibrous casing comprises a paper web coated with a regenerated cellulose. Briefly, in the process for making a fibrous casing a non woven paper such as an abaca paper is coated with a cellulose derivative such as viscose. The viscose coated paper then is contacted with a regenerating bath containing an acid. The resulting chemical reaction regenerates the cellulose derivative to form the so called "fibrous" casing. As a possible alternative, the paper web can be coated with a cellulose solution formed by the direct dissolution of cellulose with an amine oxide cellulose solvent. The regeneration of the cellulose is accomplished without a chemical reaction simply by contacting the solution-coated web with a cellulose regenerating bath comprising a cellulose nonsolvent such as water.
Fibrous casings take one of several forms which generally can be classified as "soak" or "no soak" depending upon whether the casings as sold, contain a sufficient amount of moisture to permit stuffing.
For example, a long length of fibrous casing containing about 7-10% moisture based on the weight of dry cellulose in the casing can be shirred to a much shorter length. These casings can be stored for long periods without the need for special packaging. Just prior to use, these casings are soaked in warm water for twenty minutes or more in order to provide the higher moisture content for stuffing. After soaking, the moisture content of the casing may be as high as 170% or more based on the weight of dry cellulose in the casing.
Another form of fibrous casing which is soaked are so-called cut lengths of casing. Cut lengths are much shorter pieces of fibrous casings, usually from about twelve inches (30.5 cm) up to about seventy-two inches (183 cm) in length. Cut lengths are closed at one end by longitudinally pleating the casing and then capping, clipping or tying the pleated end. Cut lengths of casing usually are bundled together and the entire bundle is placed in a soak tank of warm water prior to use to raise the moisture content to the same levels as noted above.
Long lengths of casing also can be sold in a premoisturized form. For example, for certain stuffing applications, a moisture level less than full soaked levels is sufficient. For these applications, the casing is provided with a controlled amount of moisture, usually from about 40 to about 45% based on the weight of dry cellulose. The moisturized casing then is shirred or reeled. The moisturized casing is packaged in moisture barrier packaging to retain its moisture content during storage prior to use. This casing is called "no soak" casing as it can be used right out of the package without the need to add further moisture such as by soaking. Due to the relatively high moisture content of this casing, it usually contains a water soluble antimycotic or is packaged by gas flushing to prevent the growth of mold on the casing.
While long lengths of fibrous casing, either in a shirred form or on reels, have been sold in a no soak condition, heretofore cut lengths of fibrous casing have not, to applicants' knowledge, been sold in a no soak condition. One reason for this is that cut lengths generally are used for stuffing applications where the casing must contain a very high moisture content for good stuffing performance and this moisture level is provided by soaking. It is difficult to apply this quantity of moisture to the casing in a commercial operation by means other than by soaking. For example, one way to moisturize a no soak casing is to spray a suitable aqueous solution onto the casing as the casing is being rewound from one reel to another. However, applying a "soaked" amount of moisture in this fashion may require slowing down the rereeling process or several passes through the moisturizing apparatus in order to bring the moisture content up to the level of a soaked casing. Another way to add moisture is to slug the casing by running the casing through an internally retained volume of water. However, this requires an unreasonable long slug length.
Another reason why cut lengths have not been provided in a soaked condition is that it is difficult to close the casing by clipping, tying or capping the end of the cut length when it contains very high, soaked levels of moisture. Accordingly, one would have to close the casing first and then add the moisture and this in turn requires handling the soaked casing for packaging. In view of the high moisture content of the soaked casing, handling it is a messy proposition. Also, the high moisture content of the casing renders it susceptible to mold growth and handling the soaked casing increases the likely hood of contamination.
For all of the above reasons it has been customary and most economical to provide cut lengths of fibrous casing in a relatively dry condition wherein the dry casings are soaked in warm water by the user just prior to use of the casing to provide the high moisture levels required for stuffing.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cut length fibrous casing in a fully moisturized, ready-to-stuff condition.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cut length fibrous casing which eliminates the need for soaking by the user just prior to stuffing.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a casing package comprising cut lengths of fibrous casing contained in a bag wherein the casings within the bag are in a substantially fully soaked condition and ready to use.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of soaking and packaging cut lengths of fibrous casing which eliminates the need to handle a fully soaked fibrous casing.